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March 9, 2010. It’s a date many are anticipating with great fervor, because the first Final Fantasy main-series release will be unveiled that day… now only five days away. It took 23 years since the release of the first Final Fantasy, and thirteen titles to reach this day, but is the series finally showing its age?

Nonsense. While SquareEnix has sunk millions into FFXIII’s production, and has even hinted that the series may head in a markedly different direction in the future, the game is as relevant as ever because despite experiments nearly every time out with the character progression system and battle system, the truth is that Final Fantasy has always defined the standard role playing experience on videogame consoles, from the original NES until today.

Sure, some folks will complain that FFXIII is either a sconce too old school, or too new-school for those who loved the previous outings, but Final Fantasy has never really been all that staid; the series has thrived on experimentation.

So, yes, games like Dragon Age: Origins, Oblivion and Fallout 3 may all thrive in open-world settings, but that means little; Final Fantasy has never played follow the leader to someone else’s flute. Don’t expect that to start now.

This weekend, mine was one of millions of fat PlayStation 3’s that became neigh-well unusuable for over 24 hours when the PlayStation Network refused to allow any sign-ins due to a Y2K holdover issue related to leap year (or the lack of one this year).

My PS3’s date and time were reset to 1/1/1999 and could only be re-set manually. Even after that, one could still not sign in to PSN, and any game that used trophies – even when played offline – were unusable. You couldn’t even sign into the PlayStation Store to shop gifts for Mothers Day … or any other day, for that matter.

Sony’s slow-to-respond response? “Wait for a day or so, and this’ll correct itself.” Yeah, real nice, Sony.

The Error 8001050F incident – or Blackout Sunday, as I like calling it – is not a first for PSN; it occurred in 2008 as well. Sony needs to fix this permanently via a system update so that it never happens again.

Foul us up once, Sony, shame on us. Foul us up twice with the same Error 8001050F? Shame on you.

I had my safety glasses on and I was ready for a firestorm, but so far my Top 20 Videogames of the Past Decade feature hasn’t stirred up much criticism.

I can’t say I’m disappointed; I wasn’t seeking controversy. But I will say I’m surprised. Then again, maybe I just did a better and more competent job at picking out the best games of the past ten years than the Nintendo-kissing fools at Yahoo Games.

Of course, that’s setting the bar pretty darn low.

Now that it is finally and fully revealed, I completely expect there to be plenty of criticism. The main one I expect is “How can you not include Grand Theft Auto?” followed closely by “How can you not include Legend of Zelda or one of the Mario games?”

Simple. I don’t like those games, and this is my list.

I hated Yahoo’s list, so I came up with my own. If you hate my list, exercise your Constitutional rights and make up one of YOUR own, too! That’s how it works in America; we don’t have to change our opinions to please others, and that’s all this list of the Top 20 Vidoegames of the Past Decade is… my opinion.

Are there games on here I loved that didn’t make the cut? Sure there are. I loved the Fatal Frame series, for example; but it just didn’t seem like a Top 20 kind of love. I love plenty of text-base sports management games on my PC, too; but they also didn’t seem like they belonged.

So, these are my decisions, my opinions. Take ‘em for what they are. Disagree on your own blog. But if you think spamming me because I didn’t include a game you like is gonna influence me, think again and spend your time saving up for those adult acne treatments! This is my blog and my opinion… and these are the games I loved most over the past ten years.

‘Nuff said.

1. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360, PS3)

Sure, we know there are other Elder Scrolls titles out there. I enjoyed Morrowind on PC back in the day. Buy when it comes right down to it, only TES IV: Oblivion really shook the world awake that the next generation of videogame hardware had not only arrived, but defined a new level of gaming excellence.

Bet your Xenadrine RFA X on the fact that this was the defining game of the current generation of hardware, just like Final Fantasy X was the defining RPG for the previous generation of hardware.

Much as I enjoyed the more-recent Fallout 3, that game was merely riding in the shadows of Oblivion. Not only that, but for as much as I love Dragon Age and Mass Effect, it must be admitted that they are RPGs that owe at least part of their inspiration to Oblivion.

Yet here’s the bottom line for me: despite being just about the first – and for a long time, only – RPG of the 360/PS3 era, Oblivion still holds up well today, and ultimately it’s the videogame that converted my non-videogame-fan wife into a gamer.

Not only that, but between my wife and I, we pretty much KILLED out first Xbox 360 playing and replaying Oblivion… a game we own on two platforms, both 360 and PS3. Despite offering over 100 hours of gameplay, we’ve both played through the game more than once – there’s simply no other game this decade I can say that about. Between my wife and I, we’ve probably played 500 hours of Oblivion.

Nothing else matches that, or even comes close.

3. Mass Effect (360)

Whether they knew it or not, the Xbox 360 scored one of the best platform-exclusive franchises of the decade when they got BioWare to create Mass Effect for the Xbox 360. While sometimes the main characters appear to need the best eye cream for dark circles, the truth of the matter is that the game was one of the genre-defining titles of the 360/PS3 era.

The space-opera role-playing shooter owes a lot to both Star Trek and Star Wars while somehow being its own thing as well; and although the second title in the series didn’t arrive until the decade was over, the first title was promising enough to show that the series, planned as a trilogy, would be rock-solid.

No matter what type of “Shepherd” you created, he made a memorable hero and the universe of planets he was given to explore was quite impressive. It’s one of the few that have made me want to play to completion; not just once, but more than once.

4. The Final Fantasy franchise (PS2, PS3, PSP, GBA, DS, GameCube, Wii, 360, mobile)

Once, this series would have ranked right at the top of my list; that was back in the previous decade, the 1990s, when Square was arguably at the top of their game. However, the turn of the century saw a marked drop-off in production, as well as some stagnation, to be frank.

The proper installments that actually were released in the past decade include Final Fantasy IX on PSone in 2000, Final Fantasy X on PS2 in 2001, and the MMO-RPG, Final Fantasy XI on multiple platforms in 2002. Then there was the long silence before, late in the life of the PS2, Square released the long-awaited Final Fantasy XII in 2006… and it was almost overshadowed by the release of the PS3.

Japan already saw the release of Final Fantasy XIII in 2009, but it will be a new decade by the time the title hits US shores, so it just doesn’t count.

Still, each Final Fantasy installment was beautiful for its time; FFIX was a wonderful swan song for the PSone platform, FFX was a platform-defining game for the PS2, a model which all other PS2-era RPGs paid homage to, and FFXII was a glorious swan song on PS2 that made some people wonder why a new generation of hardware was even necessary.

The only real stinker in the series proper was the MMO-RPG, FFXI, which has seen regular updates and is due to be replaced sometime early in the new decade (2010 or 2011) by Final Fantasy XIV. Still, for series purists like me, FFXI doesn’t count and should never have been made part of the main series’ numbering, but the launch of a new online-only series that could have been called Final Fantasy Online or something like that.

Sure, like a lot of people, I didn’t care for the sit-n-watch combat system of FFXII; but at least it saved me loads of joint pain from all that button-mashing hitting the X button tends to inspire in other Final Fantasy titles.

Be that as it may, and despite all the missteps and delays this decade, the wonderful gaming memories I’ve enjoyed at the hands of FFIX, FFX and FFXII still rank this RPG as an all-time favorite series… in this past decade or any other it has been part of.

5. The Disgaea franchise (PS2, PS3, PSP, DS)

Officially, there are only three chapters in the Disgaea franchise: Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories, and Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice. However, the first two titles, originally for the PS2, have been remixed and re-released on the Sony PSP platform as Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness and Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days. Also, the original Disgaea has been remixed even further for an appearance on the Nintendo DS in Disgaea DS.

While Atlus makes many fine Tactics-style RPGs, none carries quite the depth of entertainment value as does their Disgaea series, which held up well when moving to the PS3 platform with Absence of Justice. Focusing on the struggles of the young son of an overlord of Hell to take his father’s mantle despite a desperate power struggle to wrest it from him, the series is full-on Japanese anime goodness with plenty of comedy.

Although not as mainstream as, say, Super Mario Galaxy or Legend of Zelda, I’ll take the gameplay of a Disgaea trouble over that juvenile, overrated stuff any day!

7. Prince of Persia (PS2, Xbox, PS3, Xbox 360, PSP, DS)

I almost ranked this series higher, but the top of the list is going to be crowded with great, great franchises, so it was just about impossible to bump it any higher. All the free medical travel in the world isn’t worth as much to me as one good Prince of Persia title.

Now, I’m a bit of a late-comer to the franchise. When the PS2/Xbox trilogy was being published, I was not big on action-adventure-platformers and viewed the the Sands of Time, Warrior Within and The Two Thrones with some suspicion; I figured it was a “me-too” title in the Tomb Raider mode.

How wrong I was, but I didn’t discover that until I picked up the game on a whim in its first PS3 appearance. A franchise reboot, the PS3/360-era Prince of Persia, which came out in 2008 originally, was full of cell-shaded beauty and HD eye candy. Plus, it was addictively fun to play! It’s one of the first games I had played all the way through in years, and boy was it worth it; I’ve almost completed my second go-round on it, and even coughed up for the add-on adventure through the PSN Store.

With a major motion picture on the way and the first PS3/360-era sequel coming this spring, namely Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, it’s a great time to like this franchise. But the series makes my list because I’ve gone back and purchased all three of the PS2 Prince of Persia titles and found them quite good for the era in which they were made, but also they are evidence of how dramatically the franchise has grown and matured over the past decade.

Of course, the game goes back quite a bit longer than the last decade, with roots in many 1989-era home PCs, Macs, Commodores and home videogame systems. It is a concept that has weathered… the sands of time!

8. The Sims franchise (PC, PS2, Mac, DS, PSP, iPhone, mobile platforms)

First unleased in January 2000, The Sims is a “life simulator” that allows you to control electronic people from the comfort of your real-world TV. Just entering its third official iteration, The Sims 3, the series has been a huge and consistent seller for publisher EA Games, even though they never really put it on a discounted sale.

That’s because the game itself is just loads of fun; too many people get sadistic pleasure, for example, out of forcing a sim to pee itself, or leading it into a room, then removing all the doors and windows and sources of food, water or cleansing and watching the little thing go ape until it “died.”

Once EA realized this, they of course nurtured it by offering even more amusing “torture your sim” animations and scenarios. Sure, plenty of folks play the game more straight-up, but that’s the beauty of the franchise; there’s no “wrong” way to play it.

10. The Gallop Racer series (PSone, PS2)

Now, horse-racing videogames are rare and hard to find. And of the few franchises that are out there that aren’t associated with Mattel dolls, Tecmo’s Gallop Racer series is clearly the cream of the crop. At least in my book. But this is definitely a “my personal tastes” pick, though it may leave some of you so shocked you’ll be breathing through air filter for a year.

Normally, I hate racing games; there are only three franchises that have ever captured to interest. Gran Turismo is one, SSX (which I classify as racing rather than sports) and Gallop Racer. Of all of them, Gallop Racer is the quirkiest choice.

Still, every year when the Kentucky Derby kicks off the US Triple Crown, dusting off my old copy of Gallop Racer 2006 is my favorite form of pre-race warm-up. The game is challenging yet accessible; easy to play but hard to master; highly realistic but with a flair for Japanese “over the top” cartoonishness at times.

From the racing itself to managing the careers and breeding of your stable, there are few joys as sublime as playing through a month (or a year) of Gallop Racer, just because when you actually do come in first, there’s such a sense of achievement.

You can’t push horses like cars, so hitting them ceaselessly with the rider’s crop is a no-no; and each horse has a different personality, making it a challenge to master this game.

Sure, the franchise never made it to the PS3/Xbox 360 era, and the company seems to have forgotten about it (the last installment came out in 2006), but I spent too many hours playing this game not to acknowledge it on this list.

The missed opportunity to put this game into the major leagues was its lack of a licensing agreement with the US Triple Crown; if Tecmo had done that, the game could have been marketed on TV throughout the Run for the Roses each spring, and it would have sold even better.

The series may never have been a breakout hit, but it always sold out and sold quickly… and those of us who own a copy NEVER give them up.

We’re halfway there, folks! We have numbers 11-20 now all up in our big countdown of the top 20 videogames of the past decade. Already, some mighty classy franchises have been named. Controversy has been stirred. Madden in the bottom 20 instead of the top? Shadow Hearts even makes the list?

But see, that’s the beauty of this: it’s my own opinion and while not everyone will agree with me, I’m darn sure doing better than that joke of a list Yahoo Games put together, which was so Nintendo-biased and stinky it inspired millions to go on weight loss diets!

Suck on that, Yahoo Games! We still have our Top 10 to go!